Hi everyone,
I hope everyone's recovered from the campout! What a great way to start the year! I've spent a bunch of time with other troop leaders this summer, and got a lot of ideas and am excited to try some (very!) new ways of doing things this year.
Meetings
Now that we're all GMS Scouts, it's time for the girls to really take over running the show. (The girls, not the parents!) In fact, at the Cadette level, we're not even called troop "leaders" anymore, but are troop "advisors" to show the leadership role the girls are starting to take over.
So, meetings will be a bit different in 2018-2019. I'm hoping that these dates will get locked in, but I don't have them officially approved by the school yet, so there's a slim chance things will change.
How will meetings be different?
First, there will be two per month, BUT, one won't be for everyone. What???
On the second Thursday of each month, from after school - 4:30, will be a planning meeting. It'll be shorter than the regular meeting (but will still run to 4:30 so if girls are in other Thursday clubs they can still make it over) and just the girls who want to be on the "planning committee" for the next meeting will attend this one. We'll bring a treat for the girls so the can chat, eat, and plan the next week's adventure.
Who should come:
#1) Whichever girl took responsibility for the upcoming Journey section (the girls all picked Journey sections at the end of last year, I'll let you know who's on deck!)
#2) Whoever else wants to be a leader, has an idea, or just wants to help plan!
They'll come up with a plan and divide up responsibilities for the meeting the following week. That includes leading activities, getting supplies, etc. They could plan out farther if they want to do something bigger (field trip, for example) but would have to commit to being at the future planning meetings involving that trip. Meeting activities they might decide on could include: Do a badge, crafts, games, activities, field trip, etc.
The girls will also use this time to plan our monthly activities as well. We'll use the Girl Scout Connections book, and their ideas to pick what fun not-a-meeting stuff we'll do throughout the year.
If no one comes, we won't have a meeting that month.
The following Thursday (so the 3rd Thursday of each month) will be the meeting those girls planned out. That would be our usual after school - 5:00 meeting time. And that means the schedule would look like:
10/11 (P) + 10/18 (M)
11/7 (P) + 11/15 (M)
12/13 (P) + 12/20 (M)
1/10 (P) + 1/17 (M)
2/14 (P) + 2/21 (M)
3/14 (P) + 3/21(M)
4/11 (P) + 4/18 (M)
5/9 (P) + 5/16 (M)
(P) = Planning Meeting 3:00-4:30
(M) = Regular Meeting 3:00-5:00
Speaking of, for our first meeting, our first Journey Segment planner is Sophia. Evie will get the Journey Book to her at school this week so she can start thinking about what and how she wants to do things.
And, if any girls want to get a head start on looking into activities for the year, the Girl Scout Connections book is available online here, and you may have received one in the mail too.
For fun, have your scout do the "G.I.R.L." quiz on page 7 to see what kind of scout she is!
Back to the Campout for one second: I do have some small lost-and-found stuff I'll bring to the next meeting. I have some suncatchers the early girls decorated when they first arrived on Friday, and a couple shell candles that didn't make it home with their makers.
Also, the girls who stayed either night did enough work to wrap up their "try new things" Cooking Badge, so I'll have those for the girls at our first meeting too!
Finally, Silver Award stuff:
Evie presented our work to the Greendale Village Board of Health earlier this month, and they're very excited about what we've done, and excited to move along with it. We set up 4 next steps, that the girls can either incorporate into meetings or we can do as "side projects." Start thinking about what one(s) your scout would be most interested in doing! (They could do them all!)
4 Next Steps:
#1) Some of us will make a written list of the spots that were found that needed repairs, and take pictures to present to the Village of Greendale officials to ask if they can be repaired.
#2) Some of us will research outdoor path signs and what we would need to do to make them and have them placed at the important intersections we found in our surveys
#3) Some of us will research outdoor benches. The village has already agreed to purchase several. We would have to confirm the locations and check to see how we can have them placed there—for example, are they on private property, or are they on Village or School District property?
#4) Some of us will write new information for the old walking path brochures and also contact the map company to see if they have an electronic version of the Walking Path Map we got from the Village of Greendale so we can mark different routes and include the paths on the suggested Greendale routes.
That's it for this email! See you soon, and keep scouting!
Aleks
